A Cumbrian mountaineer and his team have captured images of a rare 'solar corona' display on their expedition in Antarctica.

Leo Houlding, from the Lake District, along with Jean Burgun and Mark Sedon are on a journey to climb the 750m south buttress of a peak called the Spectre.

The 'solar corona' they spotted shows the outermost part of the sun's atmosphere, usually seen during a solar eclipse.

Solar corona Credit: Berghaus

Leo sent this message:

We’ve seen a few halos around the sun, but yesterday either somebody slipped something into our porridge or we were blessed to witness an utterly psychedelic, three dimensional display of polar sun refraction and reflection.

For about half an hour we were overawed by what we were seeing. Photos don’t do it justice - it was truly amazing."

– Leo Houlding, British Rock Climber

The team still have 850km to cover before they complete their Antarctic journey, which started in early November.